The Samsung Galaxy Gear. Gimic or useful? Well…
Thanks to the guys at Mobicity we’ve got one to have a play with along with a Note III but I’m not gonna cover that, I will say its cool though. Priced at £229.99 in a good variety of colours and available for next day delivery, you can order one with this link… Mobicity UK – Galaxy Gear. The one we’ve got is the standard grey strap and it looks fabulous.
On to the specs;
Processor
800 MHz Processor
Display
1.63 inch (41.4mm) Super AMOLED (320 x 320)
Camera
1.9 Megapixel BSI Sensor, Auto Focus Camera
/ Sound & Shot
Video
Codec : H.264
Format : MP4
HD(720p) Playback & Recording
Audio
Codec : AAC
Format : M4A
Samsung Services
Samsung Apps
ChatON : mobile communication service
Connectivity
Bluetooth® v 4.0 + BLE
Sensor
Accelerometer, Gyroscope
Memory
4GB Internal memory + 512 MB (RAM)
Dimension
36.8 x 56.6 x 11.1 mm, 73.8g
Battery
Standard battery, Li-ion 315mAh
The Smartwatch makes very good use of the hardware it’s got, the 800MHz processor paired with 512MB RAM provides enough umph to glide through the menus, respond to touches and open the apps with little lag. The screen… It’s a 1.63inch Super AMOLED, that said though, it’s more than ample for what you need, even the images taken with the camera don’t look that bad in my opinion. Storing the images taken isn’t an issue either, coming packed with 4GB storage you could walk round for a day taking images with the 1.9 Megapixel BSI Sensor and include some voice notes and not run out of space. Battery, you will more than likely need to charge it every night, I charge my phones overnight so to having to do this there too wasn’t such an issue.
The Galaxy Gear looks the part, it’s a James Bond eat your heart out piece of kit. It has an elegant finish built with a strong build from good materials. Not the usual plasticky rubbish everyone is used to from Samsung. There is only one button on the device mainly for switching it on and off, you will notice the 5 pins on the underside of the main watch which are used to connect it to the dock. The dock provides the device with a regular Micro-USB for charging and debugging (for those developers out there), this though could be a potential issue, if you leave the dock at home, getting caught out somewhere could mean your watch battery runs out with no means to charge it. You will also notice on the fastener that there are cutouts, these are for the speaker. I made a number of calls using the Gear but all where like loudspeaker calls on a phone. In loud surroundings you’ve got no chance and if you want privacy, ha, not gonna happen. quality of the speaker is good considering the size. It’s gotta be a small one.
The software included on the device is a cut down Android mixed up with Samsung’s bits and bobs to make the Gear work. With it being a limited version it needs dedicated apps to enable you to get notifications etc from your favourite social networks or auction sites. I found that eBay have a dedicated app, when I was using this device it cost me a few quid, getting notifications I was being outbid, not good. You install apps on the device you have paired and that also installs the application onto the Gear itself. Quite nifty really and seems to work well.
I’m not going to go on about the camera because it’s not all that. Although sufficient for those quick snaps it is intended for it’s not spectacular. Here’s a few samples from the Trafford Centre.
Overall, the quality of the device and the things it can do are excellent, with its good build quality it truly does look stunning. One thing I was a little unsure about was whether I had a true use for it. It’s quiet a large sum of money to pay out but… You can pay way more for a lot less functionality. At least this can give weather and other information and not just time so maybe it is useful after all.
If you want to buy one, head on over to Mobicity using the links below, they are in stock and ready to go.
Mobicity – Samsung Galaxy GearMobicity – Samsung Galaxy Note III